The Promise of Economic Sociology

Abstract

These commentaries, from five of the sharpest minds in sociology, confirm our belief that economic sociology is developing a coherent and powerful set of concepts and methods for analyzing major economic and business trends. Economics as a field has not done much to address the most important changes in corporate strategy and structure over the course of the 20th century. The business historian Alfred Chandler recounts the history of the modern firm in a framework that is broadly consistent with the tenets of neoclassical economics, but that is as close as we get to an explanation based in economics. Ever since economic sociologists began to reapply their concepts and methods to the topic, in the late 1970s, we have seen the promise of the discipline to fill a gaping intellectual hole – a comprehensive understanding of where the main trends in corporate behavior come from.

Citation

Dobbin, F. and Zorn, D. (2005), "The Promise of Economic Sociology", Davis, D.E. (Ed.) Political Power and Social Theory (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 229-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0198-8719(04)17011-7